St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-10-01
A USELESS ELECTION.

An election that elects no one, tnal
affects no public measure or policy, and
has no legal effect of any kind, is not
much of an election. People are not
likely to do much hat swinging or be-
come greatly excited over it. That Is
about the size of the election provided
for the people of Dakota by the last
legislature. 1t is not surprising that the
mass of the people decline to respond to
the appeals of class of politicians TO
rend their interior linen and voclferate
over it. Even as an expression OF opln-
ion it will have small value. The men
who are engineering it and doing the
eXhorting vehemently declare that they
will not acquiesce in the result unless 1t
goes their way. Still, it is called an
election. The best indication of the in
terest taken in it by the people, and the
nearest to test of its real significance,
will be found in the fifteen or twenty
counties that do not vote on the local
option matter. If therei is but a scatter
ing, feeble vote upon it in those coun-
ties, it may fairly be assumed that
similar expression, or lack of express
sion. would be had in most of the other
counties, if there were no exciting liquor
issue to draw them to the polls. The
want of general interest in this quasi
election should not be mistaken for in
difference in regard to statehood. Ii
the people could be fully convinced that
by voting either way on this matter the
day of emancipation from the territorial
condition would be expedited, there
would be a larger vote cast than has
ever been known in the territory. The
prevalent feeling with those opposed to
the division scheme is that it is not
worth while to go through the forms of
an election that will determine nothing.
The declarations of Gen. CAMPBELL
and his followers that they never will
consent to admission until division is
secured is taken as making the express
sion farcical. If the result is to control
10 one in the territory, it would be still
more absurd to ask the national legisla-
tre to be guided in its policy by the
casual preference shown by those
who vote on the question. The
editor of one of the leading Repub-
ican dailies, but a day or two ago,
Stdlcu tlldG uc hucW VI lO I6dSOu WHY
he, as Republican, should favor divis-
ion. except to secure two additional
senators, and he feared that in playing
the porcine act, it would be long time
before any senators were had. He had
advocated division strongly in the past,
but he now wanted statehood more than
anything else. He believed this could
be had within a reasonable time by ask
ing for admission as whole. The DEM
ocratS in congress, and outside of the
territory, he thought, could not justly
be charged with extreme partisanship,
OF being uhfriendly to the territory, if
they insisted that one state, with its
two senators and three representatives.
was enough for any territory. He was
more candid than most of his partisan
friends, but there are enough who think
with him to render futile any attempt
to make party capital out of the matter.
If the Democrats in congress promptly
offer to Dakota an opportunity to erect
one good-siZed state they will stand Oh
solid ground, and the party in the ter
ritory will have an issue upon which
they can carry the territory.